Local stories get top billing in English Montreal theatre's spring season
Many upcoming shows tell stories of city's diverse communities
The spring English Montreal theatre season is jam packed with plays that present intimate portraits of the people who make up the social fabric of the city, written by local playwrights.
The Centaur Theatre, one of the largest in the English community, has stacked its season with local talent.
The first play on the docket, The Baklawa Recipe, tells the story of two young Lebanese women who are newly arrived in Ville-St-Laurent.
Written by National Theatre School graduate Pascale Rafie, the play follows the women as they struggle to integrate during the rising feminist movement of the 1960s.
The Baklawa Recipe opens Jan. 23.
Following that is another micro-focused play about two brothers in Montreal's Italian community, written by up-and-coming Montreal playwright Michaela Di Cesare.
Successions, a two-person play, focuses in on the second generation Italian-Canadian brothers following the sudden death of their parents, as they grapple with loss and search for a way to move forward,
Successions opens April 10.
And rounding off the Centaur's spring offering is an encore presentation of Tableau D'Hôte Theatre's production of Hosanna by Michel Tremblay.
The original production which was staged at Mainline Threatre in 2015 was the Montreal premiere of the English adaptation translated by John Van Burek and Bill Glassco.
Back by popular demand, the play garnered stellar reviews in 2015 and will return featuring the same two actors — Eloi ArchamBaudoin in the title role of Hosanna and Davide Chiazzese as Cuirette.
ArchamBaudoin, Chiazzese and director Mike Payette all picked up Montreal English Theatre Awards (METAs) for their contributions in 2015.
Hosanna opens May 15.
Fringe favourites
The Morning After the Night Before was the 2017 winner of the Centaur Best-of-the-Fringe award. Written and performed by Irish actor Ann Blake, the show gives a touching personal take on the Irish marriage equality movement and subsequent vote in 2015.
Montreal's Cabal Theatre, an independent artist collective, was tapped to restage their successful run of Tragic Queens at the Mainline Theatre, which was nominated for five 2017 META awards, winning two. The 60-minute play is described as "part frenetic, part melancholic, follow the capricious and passionate power games of three time-travellers stuck in a perpetual state of girlhood."
The Wildside Festival runs from Jan. 4 to 13.
Prominent plays at Segal Centre
The Segal Centre for Performing Arts, Montreal's other largest English theatre producer, is leaning toward a selection of plays with a little more name recognition this spring, putting on the 2015 Pulitzer Prize finalist Marjorie Prime in February.
Written by Jordan Harrison, the play poses questions about identity, memory and technology as it follows 85-year-old Marjorie who, grappling memory loss, turns to a futuristic holographic companion that is "programmed to feed back only the best stories of her life."
The New York Times described the play in 2015 as "a poignant portrayal of everyday existences."
Marjorie Prime opens February 25.
Another high profile production slated to arrive at the Segal Centre in May is the 2004 Tony-nominated Golda's Balcony starring the original actress Tovah Feldshuh.
Feldshuh is a four-time Tony nominee and two-time Emmy nominee who has also appeared in the television series, The Walking Dead. Golda's Balcony is a one-woman play about the true story of Golda Meir, from Russian immigrant to the fourth Prime Minister of Israel.
Golda's Balcony opens May 22.
Race and gender in the spotlight
The Black Theatre Workshop has partnered with Buddies in Bad Times and Saga Collectif to put on a play called Black Boys in February on top of their annual Black History Month school-touring production.
Black Boys is described as a "raw, intimate, and timely exploration of queer male Blackness" and is being presented at Espace Libre from Feb. 13-17.
And finally Infinitheatre is staging a new play by Montreal playwright Alyson Grant. Conversion is a small-ensemble show about a family dinner that devolves as tensions between members clash over issues of race, gender and religion.
Conversion opens February 6.
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